Product Branding of International School in Shanghai, Geneva, and New York: A Comparative Study

• In Event: AERA Graduate Student Research-in-Progress Session 4
  In Roundtable Session: Research on Education in International Context: School Branding, Data Governance, Inclusion, and Higher Education Access and Transitions (Table 14)

Abstract

Neoliberalism has increasingly transformed education into profit-driven business. Under the influence, international schools, as institutions of implementing international education, have evolved into globally marketed products and service providers. Despite positioning themselves as international, these international schools are still deeply embedded in local sociocultural contexts to attract local clients. However, the question of how international schools strategically brand their "products" in specific sociocultural contexts to maintain the balance between the international and the local has not been fully addressed. To answer the question, a qualitative content analysis is applied to analyze the data collected from the websites of thirty international schools in Shanghai, Geneva, and New York. The product branding framework is also employed as the theoretical and analytical framework.

Author

• Shiqi Wu, University of California - Los Angeles